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<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../programming/coding-style.html">C Coding Style</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="../accessibility/coding-guidelines.html">Coding Guidelines for Supporting Accessibility</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l3 current current-page"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">API Stability</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/getting_started/content_view.html">Adding A Content View</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/getting_started/saving_files.html">Saving The Content To A File</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/getting_started/saving_state.html">Saving The Application State</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/getting_started/adding_toasts.html">Notifying The User With Toasts</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/getting_started/dark_mode.html">Forcing The Dark Color Scheme</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l3 has-children"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/components.html">UI components</a><input class="toctree-checkbox" id="toctree-checkbox-11" name="toctree-checkbox-11" role="switch" type="checkbox"/><label for="toctree-checkbox-11"><div class="visually-hidden">Toggle child pages in navigation</div><i class="icon"><svg><use href="#svg-arrow-right"></use></svg></i></label><ul>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/components/switch.html">Switches</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/components/spinner.html">Spinners</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l4"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/beginners/components/level_bar.html">Level Bars</a></li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/application-id.html">Application ID</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/application.html">Using GtkApplication</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/save-state.html">Saving and Loading Window State</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/notifications.html">Using Notifications</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/themed-icons.html">Themed Icons</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/deprecations.html">Dealing With Deprecations</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/actions.html">Actions</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/search-provider.html">Writing a Search Provider</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/pre-and-post-conditions.html">Pre- and Post-Conditions</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/main-contexts.html">Main Contexts</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/lists.html">Using GLib Lists</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/threading.html">Threading</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/asynchronous-programming.html">Asynchronous Programming</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/drag-and-drop.html">Drag and Drop</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../../tutorials/widget-templates.html">Widget Templates</a></li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<main class="main">
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<div class="content">
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<article role="main">
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<label class="toc-overlay-icon toc-content-icon" for="__toc">
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<i class="icon"><svg><use href="#svg-toc"></use></svg></i>
|
|||
|
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</label>
|
|||
|
|
<section id="api-stability">
|
|||
|
|
<h1>API Stability<a class="headerlink" href="#api-stability" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h1>
|
|||
|
|
<section id="api-and-abi">
|
|||
|
|
<h2>API and ABI<a class="headerlink" href="#api-and-abi" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
|
|||
|
|
<p>At a high level, an API – Application Programming Interface – is the boundary
|
|||
|
|
between two components when developing against them. It is closely related to an
|
|||
|
|
ABI – Application Binary Interface – which is the boundary at runtime. It
|
|||
|
|
defines the possible ways in which other components can interact with a
|
|||
|
|
component. More concretely, this normally means the C headers of a library form
|
|||
|
|
its API, and compiled library symbols its ABI. The difference between an API and
|
|||
|
|
ABI is given by compilation of the code: there are certain things in a C header,
|
|||
|
|
such as #defines, which can cause a library’s API to change without changing its
|
|||
|
|
ABI. But these differences are mostly academic, and for all practical purposes,
|
|||
|
|
API and ABI can be treated interchangeably.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>Examples of API-incompatible changes to a C function would be to add a new
|
|||
|
|
parameter, change the function’s return type, or remove a parameter.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>However, many other parts of a project can form an API. If a daemon exposes
|
|||
|
|
itself on D-Bus, the interfaces exported there form an API. Similarly, if a C
|
|||
|
|
API is exposed in higher level languages by use of GIR, the GIR file forms
|
|||
|
|
another API — if it changes, any higher level code using it must also change.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>Other examples of more unusual APIs are configuration file locations and
|
|||
|
|
formats, and GSettings schemas. Any changes to these could require code using
|
|||
|
|
your library to change.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</section>
|
|||
|
|
<section id="stability">
|
|||
|
|
<h2>Stability<a class="headerlink" href="#stability" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
|
|||
|
|
<p>API stability refers to some level of guarantee from a project that its API will
|
|||
|
|
only change in defined ways in the future, or will not change at all. Generally,
|
|||
|
|
an API is considered ‘stable’ if it commits to backwards-compatibility (defined
|
|||
|
|
below); but APIs could also commit to being unstable or even
|
|||
|
|
forwards-compatible. The purpose of API stability guarantees is to allow people
|
|||
|
|
to use your project from their own code without worrying about constantly
|
|||
|
|
updating their code to keep up with API changes. Typical API stability
|
|||
|
|
guarantees mean that code which is compiled against one version of a library
|
|||
|
|
will run without problems against all future versions of that library with the
|
|||
|
|
same major version number — or similarly that code which runs against a daemon
|
|||
|
|
will continue to run against all future versions of that daemon with the same
|
|||
|
|
major version number.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>It is possible to apply different levels of API stability to components within a
|
|||
|
|
project. For example, the core functions in a library could be stable, and hence
|
|||
|
|
their API left unchanged in future; while the newer, less core functions could
|
|||
|
|
be left unstable and allowed to change wildly until the right design is found,
|
|||
|
|
at which point they could be marked as stable.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>Several types of stability commonly considered:</p>
|
|||
|
|
<dl class="simple">
|
|||
|
|
<dt><em>unstable</em></dt><dd><p>The API could change or be removed in future.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</dd>
|
|||
|
|
<dt><em>backwards compatible</em></dt><dd><p>Only changes which permit code compiled against the unmodified API to continue
|
|||
|
|
running against the modified API are allowed (for example, functions cannot be
|
|||
|
|
removed).</p>
|
|||
|
|
</dd>
|
|||
|
|
<dt><em>forwards compatible</em></dt><dd><p>Only changes which permit code compiled against the modified API to run
|
|||
|
|
against the unmodified API are allowed (for example, functions cannot be
|
|||
|
|
added).</p>
|
|||
|
|
</dd>
|
|||
|
|
<dt><em>totally stable</em></dt><dd><p>No changes are allowed to the API, only to the implementation.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</dd>
|
|||
|
|
</dl>
|
|||
|
|
<p>Typically, projects commit to backwards-compatibility when they say an API is
|
|||
|
|
‘stable’. Very few projects commit to total stability because it would prevent
|
|||
|
|
almost all further development of the project.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</section>
|
|||
|
|
<section id="versioning">
|
|||
|
|
<h2>Versioning<a class="headerlink" href="#versioning" title="Permalink to this headline">#</a></h2>
|
|||
|
|
<p>API stability guarantees are strongly linked to project versioning; both package
|
|||
|
|
versioning and libtool versioning. Libtool versioning exists entirely for the
|
|||
|
|
purpose of tracking ABI stability, and is explained in detail on the Autotools
|
|||
|
|
Mythbuster or Versioning.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>Package versioning <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(major.minor.micro)</span></code> is strongly linked to API stability:
|
|||
|
|
typically, the major version number is incremented when backwards-incompatible
|
|||
|
|
changes are made (for example, when functions are renamed, parameters are
|
|||
|
|
changed, or functions are removed). The minor version number is incremented when
|
|||
|
|
forwards-incompatible changes are made (for example, when new public API is
|
|||
|
|
added). The micro version number is incremented when code changes are made
|
|||
|
|
without modifying API. See Versioning for more information.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>API versioning is just as important for D-Bus APIs and GSettings schemas (if
|
|||
|
|
they are likely to change) as for C APIs. See the documentation on <a class="reference external" href="http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-api-design.html#api-versioning">D-Bus API
|
|||
|
|
versioning</a>
|
|||
|
|
for details.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p>For GIR APIs, their stability typically follows the C API stability, as they are
|
|||
|
|
generated from the C API.</p>
|
|||
|
|
</section>
|
|||
|
|
</section>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
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</article>
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<footer>
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<div class="related-pages">
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<span>Next</span>
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</div>
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<div class="title">Parallel Installability</div>
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<span class="toc-title">
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Contents
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<div class="toc-tree-container">
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<div class="toc-tree">
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<ul>
|
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">API Stability</a><ul>
|
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|
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#api-and-abi">API and ABI</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#stability">Stability</a></li>
|
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|
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#versioning">Versioning</a></li>
|
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|
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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